Market Issues

It is unfortunate that we have to display a page such as this on the website. However we feel it is essential that no new business ever gets duped by rogue traders in this market. In the last few years many people have entered the bluetooth marketing arena as resellers for other peoples products, they do this with no knowledge nor industry training and experience and as a result there is a lot of terrible information on other companies websites.

We want to make sure that as the most visible company in the industry we lead the way with honest, easy to understand communication and make sure that nobody is ever fooled again by these traders.

1. The biggest issue is Distance

There are many companies in the industry quoting ludicrous figures for the distance of bluetooth sending. We have seen companies quoting as far as 1 kilometer! This is simply not possible and a blatant lie. No bluetooth device in the world is capable of a 2 way transfer from sender to phone (receiver) consistently over a distance of greater than 20m to 30m (70ft to 105ft). The reason for this is because the pod must send a message asking if the person wishes to accept the advert. This requires the receiving phone to be capable of sending back a reply message giving an opt in and permission to send the advert content.

A mobile phone has a very weak bluetooth chip inside which is only designed to send over a short distance of less than 30m. So if you used a high gain antenna to broadcast a bluetooth signal over 100m or more you would hit a lot of phones 100m away with the initial opt in message. As the phone is too far away to reply and accept the message the end user never receives the advert you wish to send them.

So in summary any company promoting big distances is either lying or does not understand the true capability of the hardware they are selling.

True proximity marketing should be targeted at a distance between 1m and 20m allowing for a maximum range of 25m to 30m. It is at its most effective in close range backed up by a call to action message through posters, t-shirts, standees etc.

It should also be noted that the Mobile Marketing Association guidelines do not condone messages being sent over a greater distance. Trying to use the technology to blanket bomb an area or entire town is abusive and ineffective.

2. Windows Based Products

There are many cheap windows based hardwares ad softwares being promoted online. The problem with windows based solutions is that windows does not have a very good "bluetooth stack". The bluetooth stack is what enables the software and hardware to communicate with other bluetooth devices because the windows stack is only designed for limited use on personal pc's it is not a professional grade software.

The problems with windows based bluetooth systems is that the bluetooth stack can freeze when repeatedly used. This means you think you are sending bluetooth adverts but you are not because the device / software has crashed. Most cheap windows based hardware or software solutions are vulnerable to this.

All professional grade solutions will use a linux hardware and have a linux based "bluetooth stack". The Linux platform does not suffer the reliability issues of a windows based bluetooth system. Our systems are all built on Linux and we do not sell any windows based solutions.

3. Over Inflated Figures

Many Companies write there sales page to say things like "you can hit 1000 phones per hour" these figures are incredibly misleading. Yes in a perfect world where everyone is in a queue and walking towards the device staring at their phone then these figures can be achieved however in the real world this does not happen so comments like this raise expectation levels to the client that are simply impossible and unreasonable.

In busy environments such as big music festival we have communicated with as many as 12,000 in a weekend. Likewise in a busy city centre we have seen figures of 1000 phones making a connection in a day but this is not the daily average, work your campaigns with sensible figures such as 100 phones per day, this still represents the ability to market your business to thousands of phones but please realise that a bluetooth pod is not the magic bullet and it is wrong when companies propose it to be so. A bluetooth system should be a complimentary marketing solution to all of your existing marketing.

4. Pricing

There are companies out there who are charging as much as £3000 per bluetooth unit installed and they are using hardware with no greater value than £500. It is simply shocking they mask the offer with talk of feature sets that supposedly distinguish their technology from anyone else's. No bluetooth device on the market should ever cost more than £1000 we have used and tested almost every device in the industry and there is nothing to suggest anything warrants a higher cost than this.

5. Zero experience and Zero Design skill

As these resellers come into the market they are just box shifting. They have no background in design and no background in the technology. So this means that yes they can sell you a box but they cannot advise you on how best to use it and they certainly cannot design you an advert that works.

We have been in this industry for many years and we also have sister companies iReally and Promotional Videos. Now these companies allow us to get a business on to the top of google and create a professional marketing video. So we have both a high level of marketing expertise as well as design expertise. We also make a point of preloading all ad-pods with a free advert designed for you. This way we know from the day it arrives you are able to plug it in and begin marketing your business with a high quality advert.

6. Training

We hear countless stories of people who have bought a bluetooth box from somewhere and they were given virtually no training and no support. This is particularly a problem when the box supplied is complicated to use.

We make a point of having a one on one training call with every customer. We help you to install the software and we train you on using as well as providing training videos you can view online at any time. We do not believe it is right that customers are left unsupported.

7. Marketing Savvy

It is shocking the number of people selling solutions such as "google adwords", "SEO", "the next magic bullet system" and the people selling them have never once ran a single successful marketing campaign in their lives. They have no understanding of the customer journey, repeat business, loyalty, no design or marketing savvy and these people are offering to make your business MORE SUCCESSFUL!!

All we are saying is just be very careful we have everything under one roof from design skill to marketing ability, video creation and much more.

We pride ourselves on being honest and delivering real value and we are always happy to chat and advise anyone on what the next best steps. So always feel free to get in touch with us we dont want to see more people being duped by these inefective systems on the market.

That all said please proceed to step 7 where we will explain to you how you can take your customers on a journey that leads to repeat business and loyalty. On step 7 you will see our full product suite and how they synergistically work together.